NEED ADVICE: Love location, hate layout

[househunter507]

I have been in the search of a 5 bedroom house in the west/north cambridge area. This house ticks most boxes but there are some fundamental flaws I can't figure out how to get around.

++ master bedroom is great
++ love the garden
++ don't care about pool or annex
++ Love orangery
++ room for chickens!

-- downstairs toilet is too small and awkward
-- entire flow of downstairs is weird
-- no need for wet kitchen
-- would prefer a family bathroom upstairs
-- would prefer to merge bedroom 2 + 4

I would also add built-in storage.

Is this worth saving? can you see a solution or should I keep looking?
The only thing my husband says is that it looks like a hotel.

Rightmove Link :)

I think you’re right about the downstairs loo, it’s tiny and doesn’t have a window which isn’t ideal at that price.
And if you won’t need a pool it’ll be an expense or a hassle looking after it or getting rid.
Otherwise I think it looks like a good layout downstairs, I can’t see an issue with the flow. Have you seen it in real life?

Wtf is a wet kitchen?

It does look like a guest house. They have carved up the space to allow for each bedroom to have an en suite as if it's a B&B so I'd agree with merging the bedrooms - a house this big should have bigger bedrooms. The sitting room looks very long and thin. The grounds look lovely. It's just a bit boxy and soulless and modern rather than a character barn conversion or farmhouse, but softer furnishings and more of an interior design flow could fix that.

Agree with the previous comments, weirdly not that nice a place considering the price, but I love the amount of outside space

I would broadly convert bedroom 4 to a family bath, to be shared by bedrooms 2 and 3 (removing the 2x en-suites).

Downstairs looks fine.

I'd love to know what you work as! Property looks like a dream, I can't imagine ever making this sort of money and would love to.

Looks like no one else knows either!

You can rent out the pool to swimming teachers. A couple of people local to us do that to make having the pool worthwhile.

i like the layout. The overall house is very bland and has a guest-housey feel to it - not a lot of character, but the space and flow look good to me. Just needs some personality.

If you don't need the 2nd kitchen you could divide that into a utility and a downstairs toilet but the upstairs would be trickier without loosing a bedroom.

I don't know the Cambridge market at all and most things are possible in terms of layout changes if you have the money to do them but the thing you couldn't change that would put me off would be that the ceilings look quite low and it looks more like some cottages than have been knocked together than a grand period house.

Also I suspect you'd be paying for a lot of things you don't want and then paying again to remove them. Sorry that all sounds really negative!

I think what's weird about it is that it has no period features that i can spot. Fireplaces, ceiling roses, cornicing, beams...all gone. Those are what tend to give a country house charm - even one that has been skilfully brought up to date. So it feels soulless.

For a house that expensive there's surprisingly few photos in the listing and most of them highlight the beautiful garden and presence of a pool. All that would make me suspicious about the state of rooms indoors.

the gardens are beautiful but im not really sure about the house itself. I don’t know the Cambridge market but I think you can get more for your money. It looks rather characterless and small - low ceilings, underwhelming hallway, no original features and very small bedrooms. You’re paying for a pool which will cost lots to maintain.

Upstairs I'd do the following and make the red bit a family bathroom. Then the 2 ensuites for bedrooms 2 and 3 can either be removed, left, or both linked to one of the 2 rooms with the 2nd made into a dressing area instead.